A technique has been previously known to manufacture sugar from the cellulose in a cellulose-containing biomass material (which hereinafter may be referred to as “biomass”) and convert it into ethanol, lactic acid, and the like by fermentation method etc. More recently, development of a technique to efficiently utilize biomass as resources is drawing attention in terms of approach to environmental problems.
Biomass is consisted of cellulose fibers as well as hemicellulose mainly containing xylan and lignin surrounding the fibers. Development of an enzyme which efficiently hydrolyzes cellulose and hemicellulose is required to increase the efficiency of saccharification of cellulose and hemicellulose in biomass.
Saccharification of biomass by a cellulase and enzymatic degradation of biomass by a hemicellulase and a ligninase have been conventionally conducted. For example, an enzyme composition has been developed in which a hemicellulase such as a xylanase or an arabinofuranosidase derived from Trichoderma reesei is added to a cellulase (Patent Literature 1). A protein having xylanase activity derived from microorganism groups present in bagasse compost and a method of manufacturing sugar by reacting the protein and a cellulase with biomass resources have been known (Patent Literature 2).
A xylanase and an enzyme composition comprising it have been developed. Patent Literature 3 describes an enzyme composition used for the degradation of cellulosic material comprising a family 10 xylanase derived from Trichophaea saccata or Aspergillus fumigatus and a family 11 xylanase derived from Thermobifida fusca etc. Patent Literature 4 describes a xylanase derived from Penicillium sp. Patent Literature 5 describes a xylanase and a variant thereof obtained from Talaromyces emersonii. Patent Literature 6 describes a xylanase derived from Aspergillus aculeatus. A xylanase preparation manufactured and sold by Novozymes (such as Cellic® HTec) is also known.    [Patent Literature 1] JP-A-2011-515089    [Patent Literature 2] JP-A-2012-029678    [Patent Literature 3] U.S. Pat. No. 8,580,536    [Patent Literature 4] U.S. Pat. No. 8,129,591    [Patent Literature 5] WO2002/024926    [Patent Literature 6] U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,630